1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system manufacture, and more particularly to a system and method for managing disk images used to manufacture information handling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use, such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling system users have tremendous flexibility in the hardware and software configurations that they employ to perform various functions. For instance, components having different processing rates, networking modes and storage capacity are often selected to build information handling systems for performing specific functions. In addition, a variety of software applications are configured upon completion of manufacture of information handling systems so that a shipped system arrives ready to perform the intended function. However, one difficulty with the wide variety of available hardware and software configurations is that information handling system users that deploy numerous systems over a period of time often have difficulty maintaining the compatibility of the systems with each other. For this reason, large entities that purchase information handling systems in bulk, such as corporate or government entities, tend to prepare hard disk drive images in advance of the manufacture of ordered systems so that the manufacturer loads the image prior to shipment of the systems. Typically, an information technology administrator of the purchaser configures an exemplary system with a desired software configuration and then sends the hard disk drive or an image of the hard disk drive to the manufacturer to use for manufacturing information handling systems.
After creating a disk image, it is often desirable to reconfigure the image to provide customized features for a particular application. For example, an information systems manager for a corporation may choose to modify a disk image to provide specific language preferences for a particular application or a specialized operating system “desktop” configuration for a group of employees. Heretofore, it has been necessary to manually apply updates and modifications to the original image and to the individual modified versions of the original image. These manual revisions result in added expense for the customer and also increase the likelihood that the modifications are not accurately incorporated into all of the modified versions of the original image.